Pretoria - The SA Social Security Agency (Sassa) in Gauteng may have to acquire additional temporary space to continue rendering services to residents affected by the intermittent strike action in Ga-Rankuwa.
As of Monday, the Sassa offices in the area were temporarily closed by security officers of the company in charge of the industrial area, over the continuous culture of delayed payments of their salaries.
The security officers shut the gate of the North West Development Co-operation, claiming their companies had not paid them in two months.
Their strike subsequently affected the Sassa offices, which saw dozens of grant beneficiaries being turned back on Monday. The offices reopened yesterday, with the guards warning they would close them again if the money was not forthcoming.
Joseph Madiba, one of the security officers and workers’ representatives, said they had been battling salary delays with companies appointed to guard properties belonging to the entity for years, but to no avail.
Madiba said they had lost count of the number of times they had to contend with delayed salaries and countless excuses given to them repeatedly.
He said they had only received their December salary on February 1, while less than five workers, to date, had just received their January salaries. In fact, he said only four out of 30 employees had been paid.
Madiba said, to make matters worse, they were not given any personal protective equipment and were forced to make do with what they could get for themselves.
“The entity and the security companies simply tell us that they are still processing our payments, but what do we do in the meantime? How do we feed our families?”
“We hate having to resort to this, hence we have agreed to allow offices such as Sassa to reopen, but if all of us are not paid by tomorrow – then we will shut them down again,” he said.
Sassa provincial spokesperson Nandi Mosia said they had begun looking for temporary space as soon as they were notified of the strike action at the offices.
However, Mosia said they stopped after being assured that the security officers had been paid and services would be able to resume.
She said the department was aware of the workers’ issues, hence they had stepped in as an intermediary to try to resolve the impasse.
“It was important for us that services to our beneficiaries are not unnecessarily affected. We were looking to find a temporary community hall or church to ensure services continued. However, if this crops up again, finding an alternative may be the only resolution, as there is not much we can do because we are not the employer.”
In November 2019, the group shut the industrial park over the same issue.
Pretoria News